Ever the sonic experimentalist, Mike Oldfield uses guitars exclusively (strummed, plucked, struck, sampled, etc.) to create every sound on Guitars. Perhaps an intentional response to the composer's previous assortment of electronic recordings, the album suffers from its form-over-substance concept. The more delicate, acoustic material ("Summit Days," "Muse," "Enigmatism") has the meditative, elegant quality listeners would naturally expect from Oldfield. But the crunchier rock guitar ensembles seem to lack Oldfield's usual sense of order and purpose. "Four Winds," an unfinished cluster of distorted racket, really misses its mark. Miscues like this one demonstrate that Oldfield is as awkward with the rock form as he is accomplished with his subtle and meditative electronic creations. Innovative and at times beautiful, Guitars is another interesting experiment from one of modern music's most ambitious icons. ~ Vincent Jeffries, All Music Guide
Oldfield plays all the music on the album, using only guitars of various types. The most remarkable usage is that of his RolandMIDI-equipped guitars,[1] which he uses to trigger drum samples and produce string-like sounds. "Four Winds" is a four-part work, whose sections are musical portraits of the four compass points (North, South, East and West).
The liner notes has a photo of Oldfield surrounded by some of his guitars, which he used on the album. From the classical (Spanish acoustic) guitar at the top (and slightly to the right) going clockwise, the guitars are as follows:
